Kerala News

Bar scam: Biju Ramesh accuses CPI-M of cheating

KOTTAYAM: Hotelier and bar owner Biju Ramesh has accused that the CPI-M had promised him that the party will reopen all the bars once the Left Government comes to power if he goes ahead with the case against former Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) chief K.M. Mani.

“The CPI-M State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan gave me an assurance on this. Even I met V.S. Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan in this regard. But after winning the elections and coming to power, they backtracked,” he told a channel.

“Instead of taking steps against Mani, the Government is diluting the cases against him.”

If the Left Government decides to give a clean chit to Mani in the bar scam case, it will amount to cheating me. It is not just me. They are also mocking the entire public who believed it to be the party’s anti-corruption election plank. The leadership should understand this,” he added.

In 2014, the Congress-led UDF Government ordered the closure of around 700 bars in the State to put an end to alcohol menace in the State.

After Biju Ramesh’s expose on a television channel where he disclosed that he paid a bribe to Mani in 2014 to re-open the closed bars, the former Minister resigned in 2015.